When Can Life Return to Normal? by Greg Albrecht

A blog I was reading a few days ago cited a portion of a lecture C.S.
Lewis gave to his students at Oxford during the dark and dismal days of
World War II. In this excerpted quote, when Lewis mentioned the word
“war,” I have taken the liberty to suggest, in brackets, the
substitution of “the coronavirus.”

The war [the coronavirus]
creates no absolutely new situation, it simply aggravates the permanent
human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has
always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always
had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important
than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty
until they were secure, the search would never have begun. We are
mistaken when we compare war [the coronavirus] with “normal life.” Life
has never been normal.

Just as Lewis, in a secular university
during World War II, redefined “normal” so too are we as Christ-
followers well served to consider how we define and understand “normal.”
That is most probably the deeper spiritual lesson Lewis was teaching
his students.

Most of us realize that anyone who promises (in
the name of God or otherwise) that life is a fairy tale existence – one
extended “days of wine and roses” – lives in la-la land.
Christ-followers are well aware that following Christ means picking up
their cross and following him. We know that suffering is part of
following Christ, and that such a life includes self-sacrifice and
service in his name. The coronavirus has shrunk our world in such a
way that we might have a clearer vision of what following Christ is all
about.

Life in Christ is the way of grace – as opposed to the
lockdown security of a predictable and legalistic code that promises a
cause and effect world. Not only is life in Christ not normal, the
gospel insists that “normal” itself – as lived out during human history –
is a hopeless and meaningless existence.

Following Christ is
“the new normal” – the “new normal” is sanity in the midst of insanity,
peace in the midst of war and reconciliation in the midst of
retribution. The “new normal” of the Jesus Way is losing one’s life in
order to find it – it is love rather than hate – it is grace rather
than law.

Many of us long for the more normal days we lived
before the pandemic in which we are all involved. Many are asking,
“When will my life return to normal?” Another writer I read recently
observed while she initially “gave something up” for Lent she really had
no idea of how far she would be forced to go in “giving something up.”
The pre-coronavirus life was an entirely different life.

When
“lockdown” was mentioned then we thought of a school campus. In
pre-coronavirus days “sheltering in place” was understood as huddling
together and hunkering down in the midst of a storm or turbulence of
some kind – not a pandemic. The point is obvious – once we surrender
all to Jesus, and begin to follow him, life never really is “normal”
again.

In a recent e-mail a pastor friend of mine in Europe
lamented an Easter without a grand celebration with lots of people in
close proximity. Celebrations of all kinds have been cancelled or
redefined and restructured, and Easter will be no different. It is true
– the coronavirus will no doubt cast its dark shadow across Easter, but
the dark shadow of Good Friday has always preceded Easter! There is
always darkness before the dawn. Always the way of the cross before the
victorious resurrection. The coronavirus is leading up to Easter 2020
– preparing us for a different, yet profoundly meaningful celebration.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face
trials of many kinds… (James 1:2) The coronavirus can clarify our joy
and bring our hope into sharper focus. We have forsaken our past
“normal” life that we might live in Christ, and that he, our risen Lord
might live in us. We are a far-from-normal new creation (2 Corinthians
5:17) – the old normal has gone, the New Normal, our Lord and Savior is
risen.